Debate Is Over, Asian Markets Still Down

Dave in lv,

You are incorrect on Paulson. He is a Republican appointed by Bush. Wikipedia says so. He caused this mess! America may be in denial over this, but the world market will not be so kind.

Obama/Biden 08!

James Danley

'credit default swaps' were used as a type of 'insurance' for exotic mortgage packages, financial instruments, they were sold to the buyers as a hedge....but.. without the capital reserves that government insurance demands....

the real cause is knowingly playing fast and loose with financial instruments without capital reserves to back them up.

Knowledgeable Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) sources that the Bush administration is putting the final touches on a plan that would see martial law declared in the United States with various scenarios anticipated as triggers. The triggers include a continuing economic collapse with massive social unrest, bank closures resulting in violence against financial institutions, and another fraudulent presidential election that would result in rioting in major cities and campuses around the country.

In addition, Army Corps of Engineer sources report that the assignment of the 3rd Infantry Division’s 1st Brigade Combat Team (BCT) to the Northern Command’s U.S. Army North is to augment FEMA and federal law enforcement in the imposition of traffic controls, crowd control, curfews, enhanced border and port security, and neighborhood patrols in the event a national emergency being declared. The BCT was assigned to duties in Iraq before being assigned to the Northern Command.

I have not seen any evidence George Bush struck down Posse Comitatus.

Please provide some news source backing your statement.

If this is true and Rep. Sherman is not delusional, I ask you to consider that if they are willing to threaten martial law now, it is foolish to assume they will never use that threat again. It is also foolish to trust in an orderly election process to resolve this threat. And why deploy the First Brigade? One thing the deployment accomplishes is to put teeth into such a threat.

George Bush struck down Posse Comitatus, thus making it legal for military to patrol the U.S. He has also legally established that in the "War on Terror," the U.S. is at war around the globe and thus the whole world is a battlefield. Thus the U.S. is also a battlefield.
He also led change to the 1807 Insurrection Act to give him far broader powers in the event of a loosely defined "insurrection" or many other "conditions" he has the power to identify. The Constitution allows the suspension of habeas corpus -- habeas corpus prevents us from being seized by the state and held without trial -- in the event of an "insurrection." With his own army force now, his power to call a group of protesters or angry voters "insurgents" staging an "insurrection" is strengthened.

Bud, the cause of the current financial crisis was not deregulation, but rather too much governmental interference with the free market, greed and a lack of Congressional oversight.

It was under the Clinton Administration that the real push was made to force mortgage institutions (under threat of hefty fines) into lowering their lending standards and giving loans to individuals who could not afford to make the payments. This caused the skyrocketing rise in the values of homes, which set into motion the downturn in the housing market (simple Economics 101: prices rise, consumers stop buying, prices drop and consumers begin buying again).

The pushing of subprime mortgages with flexible rates was seen as a get rich quick scheme by greedy lenders. And lenders did reap hundreds of millions of dollars.

And then it was the Democrats in the Senate that blocked the Bush Administration's attempts to implement stricter oversight by Congress.

Now then, it was announced this morning that pending sales of existing U. S. homes ROSE 7.9% in August. Had there not been the push for flexible mortgage rates, the housing market would be on its way back. BUT instead, what should have been a very simple cyclical effect, has turned into a huge financial crisis because too many homeowners defaulted on their greatly inflated mortgage payments (which they wouldn't have done with fixed mortage rates, as the banks would have been forced to just ride out the market instead of raising the mortgage interest rates).

I would like for anyone who supports Obama's tax plan to consider my situation and give me their feedback. I am trying to understand the fairness of it all.

One of the worst things that would happen for me if Obama were president and he implemented his tax plan is I would have to layoff half of my employees at my grocery store. Regardless of how I file my income is more than $250,000 but after putting money back into the business it would not be worth staying in business under Obama’s tax plan. Now explain how that is fair to people like me and the people I employ.

Interesting to see almost zero comment or interest on Jake's original topic - the massive drop in Asia.

To Update:

-The Nikkei(Japan) lost 9.38%
-Hang Seng (Hong Kong) lost 8.17%
-Singapore lost 6.61%
-Indonesia's market lost 10.38% (after dropping 10% on Monday)
-China's Shanghai index only lost 3.04% (but has been down over 50% since January).

Ironically, many of these countries are still in good shape trade wise because intra-Asian trade has grown in importance and size compared to export growth to the U.S.

Mainly it seems like investor confidence has been shattered and people are shifting to cash and gold. U.S. funds are also likely pulling out of overseas markets so they can have cash on hand to cover fund redemptions from U.S. customers. So that just adds to the contagion.

But mainly it's other smaller countries that are really screwed, like Iceland (which is teetering on bankruptcy) that seems to have imitated both the lax regulations of the U.S. AND also repeated the mistakes of the Asian '97 Crisis of borrowing too much in overseas currencies.

So, say hello to global recession folks.

And say a big thank you to our Chief Clueless in Command - GW Bush and the pro-deregulators in Congress (which have been mainly Republicans, given that 12 years of the last 14 Congress was in Republican control).

Heckuva job!

I must admit I was completely lukewarm on both the main Democratic front-runners during the primaries. But seeing the recent performances of both McCain and Obama in the last few weeks it is very reassuring that Obama is at least showing the calm and offering the kind of reassurances and confidence that I think we all look for in a president.

And thank goodness it seems that most Americans feel that same way too, because I would hate to have to place the fate of the global economy on John McCain's naval gazing (or, even worse, the continued good health of that gut and all his other internal organs).

New York Times Condemns McCain

The New York Times has a new editorial today lambasting what has become of the McCain campaign. "They have gone far beyond the usual fare of quotes taken out of context and distortions of an opponent's record -- into the dark territory of race-baiting and xenophobia," the Times says. "Senator Barack Obama has taken some cheap shots at Mr. McCain, but there is no comparison."

Lawmaker's son, UT student David Kernell, indicted in Palin e-mail hacking.
David Kernell, the son of liberal Tennessee State Representative Mike Kernell was indicted this morning.

David C. Kernell, 20, was indicted by a federal grand jury in Knoxville, Tennessee., for intentionally accessing without authorization the e-mail account of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin.

Kernell is a member of the UT for Barack Obama organization.

mccain's honor wrote: "It's the vilest campaign since Rove smeared McCain in South Carolina in 2000."

I guess you never saw the 2000 NAACP campaign ad where they showed a black man chained to the back of a pickup being dragged, and giving the impression that the driver was George W. Bush. I also guess you never heard the 2000 Democratic compaign radio ads saying a vote for Republicans is a vote for more black churches being burned.

Jake has no comment on the indictment of Obama blogger and email hacker Kernell?

Why are there so many racist in this country? Don't you know that to question Obama is to be a racist? When are people going to learn that Obama's election to POTUS will end all racism?

Andrew Sullivan: Death Spasms? Packer weighs in on McCain invoking Ayers:

Other than rousing the uglier impulses of the Republican base, I don’t think the Kristol Plan is going to make much difference. It’s the wrong year. Like Palin herself, the use of Ayers is a sign of ill-health in the Republican Party and a symptom of an ideology in an advanced state of decay. The smarter conservatives, like Frum and Douthat, know this.

All I do know is that if McCain wins after these tactics, he will be unable to govern. The GOP base will want Palin as president and retrench to their natural anti-McCain posture, especially on immigration and the environment; and the Democrats in Congress will never forgive this despicable and dishonorable campaign. Nor should they. It's the vilest campaign since Rove smeared McCain in South Carolina in 2000.

Someone Tell the Pitbull

I wonder if McCain and his venomous sidekick will read this in their paper this morning:

An investigation by the military has concluded that American airstrikes on Aug. 22 in a village in western Afghanistan killed far more civilians than American commanders there have acknowledged, according to two American military officials. The military investigator’s report found that more than 30 civilians — not 5 to 7 as the military has long insisted — died in the airstrikes against a suspected Taliban compound in Azizabad.

The investigator, Brig. Gen. Michael W. Callan of the Air Force, concluded that many more civilians, including women and children, had been buried in the rubble than the military had asserted, one of the military officials said.

Spot on James. No executive could operate successfully in an environment where he is daily vilified. Dumb, chimpy, betrayed his country, attack, attack, and the hamstring of every effort to improve the country, coupled with the republican desire to feed from the trough not only brought a President down but was pushed past limits and has brought the financial markets down.

A pox on the house and senate, along with all of the political operatives that cannot see beyond their candidate, to the greatness of our country.

Dave in lv wrote: "We didn't have a failure of regulations. We had a failure of Dems to do the job they volunteered and fought for."

I am now wondering if it wasn't a "failure" of the Democrats, but rather a "complete success" of the Democrats. I wonder if they intentionally ignored all of the warnings; intentionally pushed these subprime mortgages with flexible rates onto low income families, knowing that these homeowners wouldn't be able to afford the skyrocketing payments when the next downturn in the housing market would hit. I wonder if they KNEW that is would cause a collapse of the financial institutions, turning the American economy into a tailspin.

Sen. Obama said last night that President Bush "missed an opportunity" just after 9/11. Maybe the Democrats created an opportunity to unite the American people into a rage against Corporate America so that not only will the people vote Democratic this fall, but also approve of the Democratic agenda of nationalizing health care and maybe even nationalizing the oil industry?

Hmmm! I wonder!

Healthcare is not likely to get addressed in the next administration anyway. Why is that? Because there’s no money. I like that Obama criticizes John McCain is putting the horse before the cart by trying to solve the economic crisis at it’s roots. Solving the mortgage crisis is an essential but currently missing portion of digging ourselves out of the financial meltdown that is going to ruin our economy. Obama barely mentioned it in passing and I don't blame him. He is smart not to be accountable for anything he says during the election. Once he gets in the racist will use it to try to tear him down and I don't want that. There are so many racist in America it makes my skin crawl. How can a racist not like obama? He is so articulate for a black person.

johnTX wrote: "I wonder if anyone will mention that one. I mean, it is a nearly communist plan."

Actually it is Sen. Obama's economic and health care plans that are closer to being communistic. Sen. Obama advocates wealth redistribution and then nationalizing our health care system. Sen. Obama has also implied at least a partial nationalization of Corporate America.

Now as for Sen. McCain's new recovery plan, as I understand it, he wants the Treasury Department to purchase the bad home loan mortgages and then RENEGOTIATE WITH THE HOMEOWNER a new mortgage based on the current diminshed value of the homes. That will allow the homeowners to keep their homes and also have a much lower principal with a FIXED mortgage rate.

As for the $300 billion cost, Congress has already approved a $700 billion rescue package. The Treasury Department can use some of THAT money to purchase some of the mortgages instead of purchasing the homes and reselling the homes.